Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Raising funds to lift women

Women need to stand up for themselves and each other was the main message of the Woman of Substance: Shatter the Silence and Begin the Healing concert, held at the Little Carib Theatre. During the event, an award was presented to veteran calypsonian Sandra “Singing Sandra” Des Vignes-Millington for her work in fighting domestic violence and for women’s rights.

The performances reflected the theme of the concert, as they took a look at various aspects of women’s lives. Georgia “The Messenger” McIntyre, dressed in a two-sided costume to represent the two women in her song Just One Mile, where a woman experiencing DV asked if the other could walk a mile in her shoes. Marsha “Lady Adana” Davis-Clifton sang Choices, a testimony to her personal experiences “I could be a winner or I could cry and lose, but I will overcome, that’s the road I choose,” and Feeling Irie, an up-beat song with a reggae-based rhythm. Kereen “Tiny” Williams-Figaro’s Slipping Away bemoaned her view that she sees T&T is going down a bad road, “Discipline, tolerance and production should not be replaced by corruption. Paradise is slipping away, to rescue our paradise we must find a way,” and Fruits, a song about young girls being seduced by old men, in which she implored, “Leave the girls alone and give them some time to grow. Her fruits ain’t ripe yet at 13, 14, 15, in primary school. We’ve got to protect our future generation, got to speak out.”

The lone male performer, spoken word poet Derron Sandy, performed Superwoman, a poem about the pride his mother exhibited while bringing up her children. Stand-up comdian Rhea-Simone “Simmy the Trini” Auguste had the audience in stitches with her comedy routine. Sharon Fraser performed The Cycle, about the licks and the behaviours which are passed from generation to generation which result in domestic violence. Shana Julien performed a dance, The Journey, to Ella Andall and Devon Seales’ Ring the Bell. Karen Eccles performed My Tribute in memory of lives which have been lost to domestic violence (DV), and She Still Have to Wait, a tribute to Black Stalin.  In her song Deadbeat, Alana “Lady Watchman” Sinette-Khan called on deadbeat dads and unfit mothers to stand up and play their roles to make the family stronger, while in Pressure Does Buss Pipe, she called on citizens to stand up for themselves and put pressure on Government to do their job, and for victims of domestic violence to speak out.

2018 Calypso Queen Stacey Sobers sang Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive, and her song Kings and Queens questioned the modern trend of young people calling each other kings and queens without possessing the character to claim the name. Shradah McIntyre shared her story of being verbally abused and raped by a music producer, before singing her R&B song Listen, “Domestic violence will only continue as long as you allow it to, until you put your foot down”.

Des Vignes-Millington was presented with her award by Jackie Burgess of the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women. She joined with Sinnette-Khan, both McIntyres, Williams-Figaro and Eccles to sing her hit song, Die With My Dignity. She accepted her award on behalf of all the women out there who she said give her the strength to continue the fight.

The concert was a fundraiser towards the building of a shelter in Tobago by NGO Women of Substance (WoS). WoS representative Stacey Ann Duncan said the organisation was formed by Onika Mars and others in recognition of the fact that often when victims of domestic violence decide to leave an abusive relationship, they have nowhere to go. “DV is a scourge which is destroying families. Our founder is a survivor, I myself am a survivor, so we understand the obstacles that exist and we want to empower women to leave these situations, and not only to leave but to become, to transform, to be empowered to live a completely different life.”

Unlike other shelters in T&T, this shelter will admit women who have male children. Duncan said this is all part of the work that WoS does. “We do an event regularly called Sit and Chat, where women can come to talk about the issues they’re facing and their situations. We do food and clothing for women, we refer women to shelters. We want women to not be separated from their children, so they can stay together, we want to empower them, we want them to learn skills before they leave, we want to give them financial literacy, we want them to have housing and we want them to be a whole new person. So it’s a grand thing, it’s going to be the first of its kind in T&T.”